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 Dear
Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
How many times does it happen that we take things for
granted, and get so used to them, that we forget what a real
blessing they are, until they are gone? It’s easy to do this at
this time of the year. We’ve enjoyed a beautiful summer that is
rapidly coming to an end. It easy to take for granted the time that
we were able to spend with family and friends this summer, until
that time is over. We can forget what a neat blessing it is to have
a cold slice of watermelon or a fresh ear of corn-on-the-cob until,
in just a few weeks, those foods will be much harder to find, and
not near as tasty as the locally-grown stuff that we are enjoying
now. And how many opportunities do we have to grow in holiness
every week, which we take for granted as always going to be there
for us, and that we’ll get around to doing ‘someday’. And yet,
what happens if that ‘someday’ never comes? Could we get to our
judgment day and have a whole long list of things that we wanted to
do, but never actually got around to doing? I don’t think that we
should be taking anything for granted. We are blessed people. And
yet is a blessing still a blessing, if we fail to take advantage of
it? How many blessings do we waste? And is that a sin?
Our Parish family has been so incredibly blessed over the
last several years to have Eucharistic Adoration available to us.
We have on-going Eucharistic Adoration Monday thru Friday, from 6:00
AM until 12:00 PM Midnight, and on Saturdays from 6:00 AM until 9:00
PM. We continue to prepare for the day when we will be able to
build our permanent Adoration Chapel, and be able to have Perpetual
Eucharistic Adoration, prayer before the Blessed Sacrament around
the clock, seven days a week, every day of the year. We’re
preparing for that day by getting as many of us as possible used to
taking an hour of Adoration each week, and spending that time with
Jesus. Eucharistic Adoration has been such a blessing to our
Parish. We can’t even count the miracles and blessings that have
been bestowed on this Parish family ALL because we have somebody in
that Chapel praying in front of Jesus, for all of those hours each
week! This is such a blessing to all of us! And Eucharistic
Adoration is truly one of those blessings that we don’t want to ever
take for granted. To move to Perpetual Adoration, it is going to
take all of us taking an hour each week AND being faithful to that
hour each week. It takes hundreds of people to make Eucharistic
Adoration work in a Parish. When we sign-up for an hour, the entire
community is counting on us to be there for that hour. It is a
great responsibility and it is a great honor. For all of us who
already have our assigned hours, it is so very important that we
keep our appointments with Jesus EACH WEEK. We can’t forget. We
need to take responsibility. We need to get substitutes when we
can’t be there. As we get more and more used to Eucharistic
Adoration, it seems that we have more and more people missing. Let
us NOT take this for granted. We must work together and be faithful
to our Holy Hours. Christ is counting on you. Our Parish, your
brothers and sisters, are also counting on you. Please show up and
keep your hour.
If you don’t have an assigned hour yet, my question to you
this week is “Why don’t you?”. God gives you 168 hours each week.
We are all coming to Mass on Sunday or Saturday night, and that’s
one hour. But you want to tell me that you can’t give one more hour
a week out of the other 167 hours to God in Eucharistic Adoration?
I’m not buying it. I don’t think God is buying it either, if you
want to know the truth. Come and find an hour that works for you
and your schedule. Share the hour with a friend. We have a couple
of hours right now that have nobody. Ideally, we’d have four or
five people assigned to every hour so that there’s never any way
that Jesus would be left alone in the Monstrance. Stopping in the
Chapel once in-awhile is nice, but it is not the same as having a
weekly, scheduled hour – your appointment – with Jesus! If you
don’t have an hour of your own yet, call Carol Alvarez today at
843-2530, and she’ll get you set-up. Wouldn’t it be awesome if so
many people called Carol today that her phone never stopped
ringing? I would love it if Carol called me tomorrow and told me
not to ever do that to her and her phone again. Come on! Take an
hour! You’ll be glad that you did. Eucharistic Adoration is a
special opportunity. And unfortunately, we do take it for
granted. Don’t miss out on this opportunity.
Jesse Manibusan arrives tomorrow. The mini-Mission is
tomorrow night and Tuesday night at 7:00 PM. Hopefully, we’ll see
you then!
In Christ,
Fr. Kevin
Don’t be so open-minded that your brain falls out |
